Russia's aid convoy to Ukraine feared to be 'invasion pretext'

Adrian Croft and Sergei Karpukhin

Brussels/Donetsk: Ukraine said on Tuesday that it would not allow any Russian aid into the country if it was accompanied by the Russian military or members of Russia's emergencies ministry.

Referring to a big Russian convoy which Moscow dispatched on Tuesday with aid to Ukraine, presidential aide Valery Chaly said: "This cargo will be reloaded onto other transport vehicles (at the border) by the Red Cross."

"We will not allow any escort by the emergencies ministry of Russia or by the military [onto Ukrainian territory]. Everything will be under the control of the Ukrainian side," Mr Chaly told journalists.

Ukrainian government soldiers from battalion "Donbass" walk through a field as they search from house to house in the village of Mariinka near Donetsk. Photo: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday Russia was sending the aid convoy to eastern Ukraine despite urgent Western warnings against using humanitarian help as a pretext for an invasion.

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With Ukraine reporting Russia had massed 45,000 troops on its border, NATO said there was a "high probability" that Moscow could intervene militarily in the country's east, where Kiev's forces are closing in on pro-Russian separatists.

Western countries believe that Mr Putin - who has whipped up the passions of Russians with a nationalist campaign in state-controlled media since annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March - could now send his forces into the east to head off a humiliating rebel defeat.

Thousands of people are believed to be short of water, electricity and medical aid due to the fighting, but US President Barack Obama told his Ukrainian counterpart that any Russian intervention without Kiev's consent would be unacceptable and violate international law.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso delivered a blunter message directly to Mr Putin in a telephone call on Monday. "President Barroso warned against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian," the Commission said in a statement.

The Kremlin, in its own account of the conversation, made clear that Moscow would indeed send help to largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

"It was noted that the Russian side, in collaboration with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is sending an aid convoy to Ukraine," the Kremlin statement said, without revealing when the convoy was going.

In a cautious response, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had submitted a document to Russian and Ukrainian officials on delivering aid. However, the independent agency stressed in a statement that it needed agreement from all parties as well as security guarantees to carry out the operation, as it does not use armed escorts.

"The practical details of this operation need to be clarified before this initiative can move forward," said Laurent Corbaz, head of ICRC operations for Europe and Central Asia.

According to UN agencies, more than 1100 people have been killed including government forces, rebels and civilians in the four months since the separatists seized territory in the east and Kiev launched its crackdown.

Ukraine seeks international effort

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko initially came out in support of an aid mission but made clear it had to be an international effort under the aegis of the ICRC, involving the European Union as well as Russia.

He won Mr Obama's backing when they spoke by phone on Monday. The White House quoted Mr Obama as saying that any Russian intervention without the Ukrainian government's agreement would be "unacceptable" and a violation of international law.

Earlier, Kiev said it was in the "final stages" of recapturing the eastern city of Donetsk - the main base of the separatist rebels - in a battle that could mark a turning point in a conflict that has caused the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

An industrial metropolis with a pre-war population of nearly 1 million, Donetsk rocked to the crash of shells and gunfire over the weekend, and heavy guns boomed through the night into Monday from the outskirts of the city.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said there was no sign Russia had withdrawn the troops it had massed at the Ukrainian frontier. Asked in a Reuters interview how he rated the chances of Russian military intervention, Rasmussen said: "There is a high probability."

"We see the Russians developing the narrative and the pretext for such an operation under the guise of a humanitarian operation, and we see a military build-up that could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine," he said.